


She Just Wants Him to be Happy

by spiralicious



Series: Plushie Universe [3]
Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: AU, Gen, Plushie 'verse, Plushophilia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-08-11
Updated: 2011-08-18
Packaged: 2017-10-22 12:12:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/237882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiralicious/pseuds/spiralicious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Izayoi loves her son. She worries about him but she never says anything because she just wants him to be happy. But she's not sure he is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Agreement

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote and posted this under the username gummiwolf at livejournal.

Izayoi was in the kitchen lovingly arranging orange slices and maraschino cherries into flowers to go with the Ramen she’d prepared for her son’s after school snack when she heard the door slam and feet stomp up the stairs. Normally, she would have been greeted with an enthusiastic “hey mom” as Inuyasha snagged his Ramen before he would run upstairs. But it was Tuesday. On Tuesdays Inuyasha was picked up from school by his half-brother instead of his father. Inuyasha never said anything, but Izayoi knew what Sesshoumaru was like and how he felt about his younger brother. She could only imagine the hellish car ride her son went through once a week. Izayoi put Inuyasha’s snack on a tray so she could carry it upstairs. She knew he would be hiding in his room for the next two hours, just like every other Tuesday. On her way upstairs, Izayoi thought about how Inuyasha would be sixteen soon. She had been talking with his father about getting Inuyasha a car for his birthday so he could drive himself home from school, at least on Tuesdays.

When Izayoi got to Inuyasha’s room, he was lounging on his bed petting his favorite stuffed animal, Kouga. Kouga was a large dark wolf with blue eyes that Inuyasha slept with every night and carefully arranged on his bed every morning. Kouga had often made appearances downstairs and they had had several fights over whether or not Kouga could go with them on outings.

“Hey, Mom?”

“Yes, Honey?”

“Where’s Ginta?”

Izayoi noticed Inuyasha was staring at the giant pile of stuffed animals on his dresser. All of them were canines and almost all of them were wolves. Sometimes when she was cleaning, Izayoi would hide one of them in hopes that he wouldn’t notice and that he would be willing to give it up later. But he always noticed.

“Did you look in the laundry room?”

And she always gave them back.

The summer before he started high school, Izayoi had tried to talk Inuyasha into packing his stuffed animals in a box and putting them away. She still remembered the fight they'd had.

“Honey, you’re a little old to have stuffed animals all over your room.”

“So?”

“What about when you invite your friends over? Won’t you feel too embarrassed to hang out in your room?”

“If they’re really my friends they won’t care. At least that’s what you used to say about my ears.”

“Honey, I know you don’t really like to talk about this, but what if you want to invite a girl over? Girls don’t tend to like boys that have stuffed animals all over their rooms and teenage girls aren’t exactly kind about...”

“Get out.”

“Inuyasha?”

“Get out! Get out! Get out!”

Inuyasha shoved his mother out of his room and slammed the door. Izayoi was scared by her son’s behavior. She was well aware of Inuyasha’s temper but it had never been directed at her before.

Later, Inuyasha went downstairs with his eyes downcast. When he finally did look at his mother, his face was the picture of guilt. She thought he was about to cry.

“I’m so sorry, Mom.”

The two of them sat down and worked out an agreement. Inuyasha could keep all of his stuffed animals in his room as long as he kept them all in one spot.

Inuyasha had been sticking with the agreement for almost three years.


	2. Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trip to the mall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really changed some family dynamics in this. Yumi is an OC. She's just mentioned and never really appears.

“Inuyasha, honey?”

“Yeah, Mom?”

“When you’re done eating, get your shoes and come downstairs. We’ve still got to get something for Kanna’s birthday. Okay?”

“Do we have to? She’s creepy.”

“She’s your cousin, she’s younger than you and at her party, you will be nice to her.”

“Keh.”

“Inuyasha!”

“Fine.”

Izayoi gave Inuyasha a kiss on the head before she went back downstairs.

Later that evening, Izayoi and Inuyasha went to The Elephant Trunk at the mall. After twenty minutes of searching, Izayoi managed to find what she thought was a suitable gift for the quiet girl and lose her son. Izayoi had expected to find Inuyasha grousing at the front of the store. Instead, she found him in the stuffed animal section staring at the shelves. She paused to look at him. He wasn’t doing anything wrong but there was something off about the way he was looking at them. She couldn’t place what it was but it made her worry. She decided not to dwell on it.

“Inuyasha, do you think she’ll like this?”

Inuyasha was brought out of his trance and looked over at his mother who was holding up a Hello Kitty gift set.

“Keh. It doesn’t matter. Naraku will steal it from her the second nobody’s looking.”

“Inuyasha!”

Izayoi’s scolding was half-hearted because she knew he was right. Inuyasha smirked as he walked past his mother to the science section. He walked back carrying a chemistry set.

“She’ll love this.”

“Yumi would kill me.”

“She can’t still be upset. It was only a tiny explosion.”

Izayoi thought for a moment and pulled another box off the shelf.

“What about this?”

“’Design a Heavenly Equestrian Wardrobe.’ Sounds kind of kinky, Mom.”

Izayoi laughed.

After several minutes of searching the pair finally settled on a “Spa Science Kit,” made their purchase, and headed to the food court to get some take-out for dinner.

Izayoi was glad Inuyasha was in a better mood, so she instantly agreed when Inuyasha suggested they watch a movie when they got home. Inuyasha settled in on the couch after putting “Ponyo” in the DVD player while Izayoi got the popcorn. When she came back, Inuyasha was sitting on the couch holding Kouga watching the screen. It was something she’d seen a hundred times before but for the first time she really looked at him. Inuyasha was holding Kouga against him with his legs pulled up to his chest. But Inuyasha wasn’t just holding the stuffed wolf. He had it laying so its belly-side was facing him and the forelegs were around his neck like it was hugging him. Inuyasha’s arms were wrapped around Kouga, petting in slow soothing motions and Inuyasha was lightly, almost imperceptibly, nuzzling Kouga’s head. The scene brought up that nagging feeling of worry she’d had at the toy store but she decided to ignore it and enjoy the movie.

“Popcorn, Honey?”


	3. The Wash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inuyasha tries to come clean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally wrote and posted this under the username gummiwolf at livejournal.

The next morning, Izayoi was shocked when not only did her son come downstairs for breakfast fully dressed unprompted, he did so a half an hour early. Inuyasha headed straight to the fridge without saying so much as good morning to his mother. After spending an excessive amount of time getting the milk out of the fridge, Inuyasha went around the kitchen gathering what he needed for his bowl of cereal, carefully avoiding looking at his mother. Izayoi watched Inuyasha settling down at the table, carefully preparing a bowl of cereal with all of his attention focused on the bowl in front of him.

When Izayoi turned around to take care of a whistling tea kettle, he finally spoke.

“Um, Mom?”

“Yes?”

She slowly turned around only to have him snap his attention back on his cereal bowl.

“Say you got something on a…pillow and wanted to clean it, what would you do exactly?”

He was talking fast and lightly tapping his foot. The more Izayoi tried to make eye contact, the more he avoided it.

“Well Honey, that depends on the pillow and what I got on it.”

Inuyasha blushed at that.

“Oh.”

Izayoi decided she knew why Inuyasha was asking those questions. He was a teenage boy after all. She tried not to giggle as she continued.

“However, there is usually washing instructions on the tag. If there isn’t, the safest bet is spot cleaning but most things can survive a trip through the washer.”

Inuyasha scarfed down what was left of his breakfast. Izayoi smiled as he rushed out of the room. She could hear him go upstairs and then back down and start the washer. She was disappointed, however, when a little while later she heard Inuyasha yell out to her that he was walking to school and left without hugging her goodbye like he usually did.

While Inuyasha was at school, Izayoi started cleaning the house as she usually did and she found Shippou in the living room. Shippou was a largish, very realistic looking fox plushie. Izayoi thought it was very creepy. Inuyasha had bought it himself and it was the only plushie that occasionally shared Kouga’s spot on the bed. Izayoi remembered when she found out Inuyasha was secretly earning money, although she didn’t find out why until the box with Shippou in it had been delivered at their door.

A few months earlier, Izayoi looked out the kitchen window and saw Inuyasha outside talking with that odd boy from down the street that always wore pink barrettes in his hair and his short friend. She could never remember their names. Suddenly, she saw the short boy punch Inuyasha in the face hard enough to knock him down. Izayoi ran outside.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

“It’s okay mom.”

Inuyasha held up some wadded up money.

“I just made forty bucks.”

After Izayoi managed to drag her son inside she found out that he had been secretly earning money to get “something special.” She managed to talk him into going to his father’s house to do some chores for extra cash.

Izayoi deposited Shippou in Inuyasha’s room and continued with her day.

When Inuyasha came home from school he yelled “I’m home” to his mother and checked the washing machine. The next thing Izayoi heard was a mournful wail coming from her son. She ran to the laundry room and saw a mangled Kouga. That was not what she had thought Inuyasha had been washing that morning. Inuyasha was hysterical and inconsolable. Izayoi had never seen her son like this. After a couple of hours he had calmed down enough to go to his room and lay down.  
Izayoi had fully intended to throw the plushie away. It looked like it had exploded. Part of her had been relieved that she could finally get rid of something she felt her son was overly attached to, but after seeing how upset he was, she changed her mind. After some careful examination and a lot of work, she managed to patch Kouga back together.

She had never seen Inuyasha so happy when she brought him his newly repaired plushie.

Later that night, Inuyasha walked into the kitchen where Izayoi was checking her email. He looked like he wanted to tell her something. It had been a rough day and she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear it. After a few awkward moments, Inuyasha asked her if she would make him some Ramen. Izayoi was slightly relieved.


End file.
